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South Africa: Close finish in Northern Regions Off Road Championship.

There was a close finish to the Special Vehicle category in round five of the South African Northern Regions Off Road Championship at Sun City over the weekend. Only 26 seconds separated the first three crews in the Sun City 200, a race run in conjunction with the fourth round of the national Absa Off Road Championship.

The win finally went to championship leaders Kobus Bekker and Philip Pienaar, in a Raceco, who finished 13 seconds ahead of Marius and Jolinda Fourie, in a BAT, with both crews running in Class P.

A further 13 seconds behind were veteran former national champion Giel Nel and Jaco Jonck in a Zarco Lite Truggy. Nel and Jonck also took the Class B honours where they had over 25 minutes in hand over Wolf-Peter Pfumfei (WPP) who finished fourth overall.

The top five were completed by John Boxhoorn, in another WPP. Boxhoorn trailed in more than 25 seconds behind the veteran Pfumfei. Third in Class P were Jaco and Jan van Aardt, in a Janco, who were eighth overall.

In the Production Vehicle category there was a comfortable win for Ian Boshoff and Douw Grobler in a Toyota Hilux. The pair also won Class E and were almost 28 minutes ahead of Class D winners Roelof and Lenert du Plessis in another Toyota.

Third overall were another Class D crew in Jack and Sarel Oosthuizen, in a Land Rover, with Gene Boshoff and Lotter Klein (Toyota Hilux) fourth overall and second in Class E. Tough race conditions took a heavy toll of Production Vehicle crews and among the casualties were championship leaders Chris and Anneline van Jaarsveld in a Ford Ranger.

"Running selected Northern Regions events in conjunction with Absa national races is an effort to promote off road racing at a regional level," said MSA Off Road Car Racing chairman Richard Schilling. "It is a concept that is working well, and we are hoping to see a number of regional competitors graduate into national championship racing."

The next round of the Northern Regions championship will be the Verwes 200 in Lichtenburg on August 14.